Johan Holmqvist stopped 12 of 13 shots faced for the win. Holmqvist improves to 10-8-0 this season. Brad Richards had 1 goal and 1 assist in the game while Dan Boyle had 2 assists. Vaclav Prospal snapped a two month long goalless drought and Filip Kuba added an insurance goal in the game. Individual helpers went to Martin St. Louis, Ruslan Fedotenko and Cory Sarich. The Lightning move back to 1 game under .500 and out of the basement of the Southeast Division.

Morgan Cey stopped 29 of 30 shots faced for the win as Gerald Coleman remains out with a groin strain. PJ Atherton lead the way offensively for the Chiefs with 1 goal and 2 assists as he continues a strong rookie pro campaign. Bryan Nathe had 2 goals while Dimitri Tarabrin and Andre Deveaux each had 1 goal and 1 assist. Radek Smolenak had a pair of helpers while Brandon Elliot and Eric Przepiorka notched the other Chiefs other goals. Finally, adding individual helpers were Zbynek Hrdel, Gus Katsuras and Jean Desrochers. Adam Henrich was tossed for unsportsmanlike conduct in a third period that saw the Chiefs outshoot Wheeling 24-4 and score six, SIX, consecutive power play goals to finish 6/8 on the night. Holy cow. Cey, Nathe and Smolenak were the game's three stars.

Karri Ramo's superb play may be overshadowing him, but that hasn't stopped Jonathan Boutin from showing a remarkable amount of progress this season.

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Boutin stopped 36 of 37 shots faced tonight to extend Springfield's winning streak to four games. The win moves Boutin to a positively brilliant 5-0-1 for the month of December with a minisculle 1.59 GAA and a gaudy .949 save percentage in 8 appearances. Ramo gets a lot of much deserved publicity and praise, but Boutin has actually matched or bested him in almost every statistical category but wins this year. Boutin's save percentage has improved 35 points from where he finished last season and he's climbing the learning curve at such a steep rate at some point we need to start talking about Boutin possibly earning some time in the NHL within the next year. Three years ago, goaltending was the biggest weakness of the organization prospect wise. Now it's almost a embarassment of riches.

Norm Milley led the Falcons offensively with a pair of assists as the team got goals from Doug O'Brien, Daniel Corso and Andy Delmore. Blair Jones, Marek Kvapil, Matt Smaby and Eric Healey added individual assists. Snakebitten David Spina failed on a penalty shot attempt early in the first period in the game. Boutin, Milley and Smaby were named the game's three stars.

The Falcons now move to 5 games over .500 at 19-14-1 for 39 points. Their win coupled with a Portland shootout loss to Worcester moves the Falcons into a tie for 2nd place in the Atlantic Division 4 points behind Manchester with a game in hand. It's the stuff that dreams are made of, it really is.